Quick Overview

• The New York Federal Reserve's regional index of manufacturing rose from 15.92 to 24.91 in February
  

• (FT) Foreign demand for US Treasury securities recorded a record drop in December as China purged some of its holdings of government debt, the US Treasury department said
  

• Japan's GDP rose 1.1% in Q4 but fell 0 .9% YoY. The Bank of Japan said that it is committed to increasing inflation to a target level of 1.0%.
  

• Canada’s manufacturing sales rose 1.6% in December
  

• U.K. Consumer prices rose 3.5% YoY
  

• YoY Russia’s industrial production rose 7.9%
  

• World 2009-10 sugar production is expected to fall 14.8 million metric tons short of demand, sugar merchant Czarnikow said Tuesday. This is wider than the firm's November estimate of a deficit of 13.5 million tons.
  

• ICE cocoa prices are gaining on reignited supply concerns amid political turmoil in Ivory Coast, the world's top producer, Barclay's Capital says -- Ivory Coast President Gbagbo dissolved the government and postponed the national election for the seventh time.
  

• China’s iron ore imports from Australia rose 42.9 percent in 2009 to 260 million tons

• As trade in the region grows more lucrative, China has been developing port facilities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and it is planning to build railroad lines in Nepal. These projects, analysts say, are part of a concerted effort by Chinese leaders and companies to open and expand markets for their goods and services in a part of Asia that has lagged behind the rest of the continent in trade and economic development.